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Sweaty Bands for a Sweaty Girl (a product review)

If you know me personally, you may be aware of the fact that I sweat a lot. When I was in middle school and high school, and even into college, the degree to which I would sweat really embarrassed me. In my mind, sweat stains were for nervous substitute teachers and male athletes. As a matter of fact, men in general had much more business sporting sweat marks on their clothing than I did, regardless of what they were doing or what I was doing. After all, I’m sure we’ve all heard the saying, “Women don’t sweat, they glisten”? Now that I’ve grown up a bit and mostly gotten past my sweaty hang-ups, I can blow off that little adage. These days, sweat is more an annoyance than anything else. I can’t stand the feeling of sweat running down my legs when I’m wearing a skirt on the subway in the summer. I hate it when my (cheap) H&M t-shirts lose their shape because I’ve sweat a bit in them. But more than anything, I can’t stand it when I’m running or doing a hard yoga practice and sweat starts running into my eyes. This usually results in me shutting my eyes tight because they sting so bad. If I’m wearing long sleeves, I wipe my face with them. But if I’m in short sleeves, there’s not much I can do except suffer through it and hope I don’t injure myself (or run into someone) while my eyes are squeezed shut or I’m blinking furiously in a lame attempt to clear my vision and stop the searing pain.

Enter Sweaty Bands. I recently contacted the folks at Sweaty Bands to see if they’d be willing to let me try one on for size. I mean, if anyone can give a Sweaty Band a run for its money, it’s me. They were more than happy to oblige and promptly sent me two bands: one thick and one thin. For the record, I want to make it clear that Sweaty Bands did not ask me to review their product, nor did they offer me any sort of incentive or compensation to do so. This review is entirely my own and contains my opinions, which I developed as a result of my experience with Sweaty Bands.

Thin Sweaty Band

Thick Sweaty Band

Reverse side of Thick Sweaty Band

Thin Sweaty Band

First off, the Sweaty Bands designs are really pretty and I knew upon opening the package they sent that I would not only wear them when exercising, but also to work or whenever. As you can see in the picture of the reverse side of the thick Sweaty Band, they have a velvet strip that runs the entire length of the band to ensure that it doesn’t slip. One thing that really bothers me with headbands (and I wear them when I’m running and doing yoga all the time because I hate it when my hair gets in my face) is when they gradually slip off your head. Thanks to this strip of velvet, though, Sweaty Bands stay exactly where you put them when you first put them on. Any moving your band will do will happen because you re-positioned it. This is something I really appreciate. I’ve worn my Bands during the workday and during yoga practices, and honestly, they do not budge.

Unfortunately due to the weather, I haven’t had a chance to wear either of my Bands during a run (instead I’ve opted for an ear warmer) so I haven’t had a chance to test them while in full-on ultra sweat mode. But I still sweat quite a bit while doing yoga, and I’m happy to say that I didn’t have to worry about getting sweat in my eyes while wearing a Sweaty Band. To me, the combination of their ability to stay put and absorb sweat makes Sweaty Bands a big time winner. They’re multifunctional, and they come in a huge variety of designs so you’re bound to find something you like.

The one problem I did have was with the thick Sweaty Band, which ended up poking me behind the ears a little bit after a few hours of wear at work. This was due to the fact that the corners of the band (which you can see in the picture above) were rather stiff. I’m not sure if this was because of the embroidered design or if there was some stiff backing in between the layers of fabric that hadn’t been trimmed entirely, but I didn’t have the same problem with the thin Band, which is much softer at the corners. And as I said, this started to bother me after a couple hours, so if you had a stiff band and wore it for a shorter period of time, it would probably be fine.

To learn more about Sweaty Bands, browse their designs, or order your own, visit them online. And a big thanks to them once again for being generous enough to let me give the Bands a whirl, I’m really glad I did!

9 comments

I feel the same way about those ones that gradually slide off your head. I’ve lost several without even realizing it 😉 I have a Sweaty Band, thick, it does stay put really well. I do think I would like the thin better though. As for helping with sweat…not so much. For me anyway. I a serious sweater too.

A little while ago I tweeted and asked if anyone had much experience with these… I’m glad to see your review! I have been looking for something different to help hold the little flyaways back and to help with sweat. I hate getting sweat in my eyes, and it’s been especially challenging since I had eye surgery and the doctor told me that for a month I should be especially careful to avoid that. When my hair was shorter I always wore hats to keep my hair back and to help control sweat, but I don’t really like them. Now that my hair is longer and I can wear it in a ponytail, I have been looking at Sweaty Bands, Bondi Bands and other solutions… but I haven’t picked one! I am always concerned they’ll slide off my head, because that’s what the Goody Stay-put Headbands do on me!